Do yourselves and others that you recommend bikes to a favor… before you tell someone that a smaller bike with less engine displacement/CCs is all they will ever need or how it can keep up with anyone else just fine; test ride a larger bike or a faster sport bike (if you haven’t already). First of all you do not know what you are missing if you haven’t ridden a faster/more powerful/”larger” bike and you shouldn’t be making recommendations to others about what they should ride. My first bike was a Honda Shadow 750… I mostly ride with 3 guys, one with an 1800cc Honda Gold Wing, one with a Honda Shadow 1100 and one with a Harley Lowrider 1200. When we went for rides in the mountains, long highway stretches or with our wives on the back as passengers keeping up with the other guys was not easy. Of course they slowed down and made sure I didn’t lag too far behind but it was always a challenge. On the highway or in the mountains/hills with a lower CC bike you have to keep the RPMs up higher to go faster/have more power which causes a lot of vibration and just adds the fatigue you get from riding a bike in the first place. A higher CC bike in most cases will provide a smoother ride, smoother/faster acceleration and an overall more comfortable ride. And in my opinion a lot more “fun”.
Let me end by saying, I am not recommending that brand new riders go out and start on large heavy bikes. I am just saying that there is life after 800cc cruisers and 500cc sport bikes.
